SAVANNAH, Ga. –
Senior outside hitter Stephanie
Nichols joined the 1,000 kill-club as the Rollins Tars
volleyball team cruised past Mount Olive, 3-0 (25-18, 25-14,
25-17), Saturday morning at Alumni Arena.
Nichols registered the match-high, nine kills to remain in second
place on the team with 104 and increased her career total to 1,008.
She is 62 kills away from cracking the Tars all-time kills list.
She recently placed herself in the Top 10 in total attacks with
2,968.
Junior outside hitter Nikki
Hartman followed with eight kills and continues to lead the
Tars with 139 total kills. Joining Hartman were right side hitter
Caitlin
Vyborny and middle blocker Jenny
Sherwood, who added six more kills as the Tars hit .281 in the
match.
Despite not having an attacker in double-digits in kills, the Tars
defense stepped up limiting Mount Olive to an .018 attacking
percentage. Hartman and freshman libero Phoebe
Corder tallied 12 digs a piece to deny the offensive pursuit
from the Trojans.
Corder now has 228 digs on the season, averaging 5.70 per set.
In the first set, the Tars and Trojans played even volleyball up to
the 10-point mark. With the match tied at 10, the Tars slowly
separated themselves from Mount Olive as a Hartman kill was
followed by a Vyborny kill, which led to two attacking errors by
the Trojans. Rollins would extend its lead to five at 20-15,
before Mount Olive mustered a two-point rally. The Tars would put
the match away by scoring the next four out of five points, with
two kills from Vyborny.
With the 1-0 lead, the Tars trailed briefly in the second at 2-1,
before taking the lead at 3-2. From that point, the Tars never
looked back. Nichols paved the way for Rollins with four kills in
the frame as the Tars hit a match-high .312. Rollins' largest lead
occurred at 24-13 before capturing the 25-14 set.
The third stanza had a similar fate as the second as Mount Olive
jumped out to a 2-1 lead. It would be short lived as the Tars
again took a 3-2 lead after a Trojan service error preceded another
Nichols kill. Mount Olive would remain close, not letting the Tars
extend a lead past two points. Tied at 10, Rollins began a 5-0
run, culminated by a kill from Sherwood. Rollins would capitalized
on its comfortable lead and even extend it to seven before junior
Natalie
Branche sealed the victory with a kill.
The Tars have now won their last two contests without dropping a
set and look to build on the momentum in their finale against
Lenoir-Rhyne at 3 p.m. at Alumni Arena.
